Don't touch F1 key warns Microsoft

Microsoft has warned that IE users should steer clear of F1 key

Steer clear of the F1 key while surfing the web, at least for a little while. That's the advice from Microsoft for dealing with the latest vulnerability, news of which was posted at the weekend.

The company said that the flaw that affects Internet Explorer users, saying that it could be exploited by hackers to install malicious software on a victim's computer.

The flaw lies in the way Microsoft's VBScript works with Windows Help Files in Internet Explorer. But for an attack to work, the victim must press the computer's F1 key, Microsoft said. "Our analysis shows that if users do not press the F1 key on their keyboard, the vulnerability cannot be exploited."

This type of attack is considered harder to pull off because of this F1 key requirement, but web-based attacks have emerged as a major source of malicious software over the past few years.

Microsoft has not seen the flaw exploited in any online attacks to date, the company said Monday. Microsoft did not say whether it will fix the bug in its next set of security updates, due March 9, but it usually needs more than a couple of weeks to test and release new security patches.